About
About Daniel Zapata Music, The Daniel Zapata blog
Daniel Zapata Music
Helping music lovers shorten their path to success
Danielzapatamusic.com is a website for Daniel Zapata, the singer/songwriter and producer from Colombia. Thru his experience in the music industry he helps independent artists improve their knowledge of the insides of the artistic process. If you could avoid loosing money and time by learning from someone else’s experience, well would ‘nt that make your process simpler, by not going thru the mistakes others have made in the past?
After many years of dedicated work Daniel Zapata has had the opportunity of working with many great music producers, songwriters and promoters like ARTIST PROMOTER JAIRO MARTINEZ who mentions “ Thanks to my 25 years of experience promoting International superstars like Chayanne, Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez , Enrique Iglesias and Shakira amongst many others, It fills me with pride and satisfaction participating in Daniel’s projects, the Colombian Singer/Songwriter, I can give testimony of his talent and the excellent quality of his music.” In Daniel Music you will find useful articles on music production, songwriting, the creative process, equipment and the experience that will give you insights on how to make a successful music career as an independent artist, and you will also be able to hear Daniel Zapata’s latest singles albums Videos in English and Spanish and more
Daniel Zapata: My life story
I was born on June 13 1981, in Bogotá, Colombia and always had a strong passion for music, it was in my blood, which I will mention why in a bit. At the age of three, my parents brought my sister and me to the United States. My Mother got the opportunity to work at the United Nations, so we moved to New York, where to this day I have very beautiful memories.
I can say My Mother is one of the main reasons I love music, she is a great singer of Boleros, she would sing to my sister and I every night to put us to sleep and I guess that eventually lighted the spark for singing and songwriting. My father also played a couple of songs on the guitar like “La Bamba”, so both my parents had a music vein in them to pass on.
We Moved back to Colombia when I was 9, things were a little rough in in the US for my Family and my parents wanted my sister and I to have more roots with our latin culture, so we moved back to our country, by that time I was already a Poison, Bon Jovi, and Def Leppard Fan. So you can understand where the rock influence comes from
I still remember how kids in school would leave me eating alone when I was in lunch just because I was Colombian and people from my country did not have the best reputation, so I was bullied at school a lot and I guess my parents did not like that for me, although that did spark one of my other strong passions which is Kung Fu, I started the practice with a Shaolin Master and to this day I still practice diligently
We moved to my Fathers hometown Medellin and when I was 12 I started playing guitar, my mother asked if I wanted to learn so I began the process of learning to play my first musical instrument and sing.
The Music Industry
By the time I was 17 I had developed my skills in playing guitar, and the romantic episodes of life made me also want to express these experiences through songwriting. I had songs that many of my friends would sing when we got together for parties and eventually one of my best friends insisted I should record the songs into an album.
…let me tell you I did not know what I was getting myself into…
The first step was finding someone with the expertise and knowledge to make a good sounding record, or better known as a Producer, and let me tell you the first tip in the industry is work with budgets, deadlines and someone with expertise who has had a hit song, or else you may be spending the time energy and money on the wrong producer for your music.
After many stumbles, failed recordings and time spent learning about record making I eventually came across a producer that could deliver the music how I wanted it to sound. By this time I was 20 years old
The process of my recording was also touched by tragedy, my best friend and Sister who I loved died at age 20 in a unfortunate Car accident, this broke my family apart and I was forced to see my parents sadness and a drastic life change, music was my consolation and became a pathway to communicating my feelings.
First Album
My first album was called “Your Name” and released in Medellin, the funny part about this album is that it was not the album I had been working on for the past couple of years, this album came along from the idea that I was recording a full album but nobody knew who I was, so I decided to make a small 3 track album that would give a taste of my style as an artist and give people the chance to get to know me.
So Your Name was released and it did well in my home town, it was a pop album with 3 songs in English and 3 songs in Spanish, at the time the music that was playing on the radio was “Escapar” from Enrique Iglesias, so we gave the album that kind of vibe, I’ve never had a problem with making music that is commercial and that goes along with the times, I believe that if you want to have a good career in the music industry you have to go with the trends or else you have very little chance that radio programmers will play you on the radio, and people will not connect because radio is marking the parameter of what’s “cool” to hear, and all that is ok.
In My Dreams
Daniel Zapata – “In My Dreams” Album Cover
By the year 2007 the recording of the initial album “In My Dreams “ was done but the process of Mixing and Mastering was still pending, by that time I had already been hired by other artists to help direct their music projects, regueton had started to become a strong genre and Pop was slowly being pushed out from programming in radio stations, so I decided to come back to the US
When I got to Miami I worked in every Job imaginable, bus boy, dish washer, even hanging signs on top of buildings until I landed the Job as a runner for Telemundo, and in one of their events I cleverly found a way to meet the person in charge of the promotion for Shakira, after many weeks of trying to get him on the phone to hear my music I finally got an appointment.
When he heard my work he said he loved it but that I needed to mix my album
I was working on the mix of one of the artist I had produced with a great Producer called Iker Gastaminza, I asked Iker to take a listen to my album and when he heard it he said “the songs are great but you will have to re record the entire thing again if you want it to sound competitive”, a huge blow to the privates but what could I do, so the process began again…
The project that I had started in 2000 would take another couple of years to finish. “In My Dreams” was finally finished by 2010. Yes that was 10 years to have a record with the quality of a record label but done by an independent, that’s why I know having a record label to back an artist is a time saver.
Number One on the charts
Once we finished the album we decided that the song we wanted to promote was “Your Touch” in Spanish “Tu Toque” but songs without a video can only go so far, so we decided to do the video for “Tu Toque” and promote that single.
I returned to Colombia because we believed I had a better chance of getting heard where people actually knew who I was and I had a small following, so I returned, recorded the video for “Tu Toque” and released the single.
At the moment I had a sponsor for promotion which are hard to find as an indi, (I will get into that in one of my blog posts), and we were blessed to see the song reach number one spot in several cities in Colombia, the effort of so many years of hard work was rewarded and I got the chance to sing in front of crowds who would know the song word by word.
Working with the Dream Producer
After promoting my album in Colombia I decided to return to the U.S.A to see what doors I could open in the Latin Market, so I traveled to Miami in 2012.
Pop artists where being taken out of programing for Regueton so I figured I would have a better chance
A program called IDA (inspire and Develop Artist) crossed my path and the chance to work with a producer I had dreamed of called Rudy Perez. This became a possibility, so I submitted my material and I was accepted in the program
It was a great week where we where introduced into a awesome group of mentors and I got to learn about songwriting with the hit songwriter and Producer Rudy Perez who I consider a friend and Metor to this day.
The song we made during the IDA program is called “I Reach For You” and the Spanish version “Solamente Tu”
The Now or Never
My goal is to share and help as many artists as I can achieve their goals, through my music experience I want my artist name Daniel Zapata to be known as a reliable friend in the industry and to be able to reach the audience that resonates with my work as a singer/songwriter/producer
Thru Daniel Music I will post useful articles to help artists and music lovers further their craft, I will also post all the updates I find relevant to the music industry
Tomorrow land
My goal has always been to make it to the A artist Category, and to bring happiness to Millions of lives thru music and songs, with the success that this brings I plan on helping as many people I can achieve their dreams.
Thank You for Visiting Daniel Music please leve me your comments
All the best !!!
Daniel Zapata
